Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-10-18
Especial Correspondence

millionaire senator could afford to own
place like Senator Palmer's Font Hill
farm. The 657 acres, more than square
mile Of land, lie within four miles Of the
most fashionable part Of the city Of De-
troit. Woodward avenue, which ranks
with Euclid avenue in Cleveland as one
of the two most beautiful residence streets
in the world, runs by this farm, and an
electric railway carries you within
short walk Of the house. The farm is
worth fortune. and another fortune has
been spent upon it. A quarter of a mil
lion dollars would not buy the land
alone at current prices, and Senator
Palmer's farm manager tells me that
$780, 900 has been spent within the past
four years in its improvement. Much OF
this land has been in Senator Palmer's
family since the days when the Indians
owned it, but it was reserved for him to
turn it from swamp and marsh into as fine
a set Of fields as ever grazed q Percheron
horse or made milk producing grass for q
Jersey COW. The farm now contains
twenty miles Of tile undertaking, and
its many fields are joined with two miles
of iron water pipe, through which the
great windmill at the barn sends a con-
stantly flowing stream of well water.
There are drinking troughs in every field,
and no field is without its clump Of trees
to form shady resting place for stock.
The stock there kept Is of the purest
blood, and Senator Palmer believes that in
this day Of specialties no farmer should
try to keep more than one breed of fine
cattle or horses. He has confined himself
to Jersey cows and Percheron horses, and
he went to England and France to i'm
port the best animals he could
find as basis for his farm.
The result is he stands at the head of
the Percheron horse breeders of the United
States, and the French government has
given him a gold medal for owning the
first Percherons in the country He is
president of the Percheron Horse society
of the United States. and made speech
to q convention Of the breeders of the fin.
est horses in France during his late for
eign tour. He has sixty Percheron
horses and seventy Jersey cows. Many of
his horses are worth 81 600 and upward,
and some Of the cows will run very high
into the hundreds. His stations are
named after the famed marshals of
France, and their weight is immense
Marshal Lannes, only 8 years old, weighs
1,S40 pounds, and another marshal, at
only year and half tips the beam at
1850, while brother of his, only 10
weeks old Qess than months), weighs
| 200 pounds.
asked Senator Palmer how he came to
choose the Percheron in preference to
other breeds He replied:
ut was from painting. I was max
ing study of the horse when l saw Rosa
Bonheur's "Horse Fair" and was
greatly struck by the action and looks of
the horses there pictured. found they
were Percherons. l afterward saw the
horses in Faris, France, where they were
used as the omnibus horse. Then they
were worth an ordinary price; now the
price in France from $500 up to 81, 600,
and the omnibus men Of Paris have had
to use Normans."
"Then the Percheron horse is not a
Normans''
"No," replied Senator Palmer; "the
Norman Is coarser, slower, heavier and
less enduring. The Percheron horse is
the result OF cross between the Arabian
and the Norman In my study of him
noticed that he has perfect digestion, en-
abling him to do great amount of work
on little food. He has a perfect temper,
and don't fret. He is full of intelligence
and saves his strength, and men treat
him better on account of his intelligence
than they would a duller horse. His skin
is thin, his hair fine and, combined with
the strength Of the Norman, he has better
blood, bone and wind, and his Arabian
blood gives him all of the nimbleness and
| speed OF the English coach horse Last
year more than So, COO. 900 worth Of these
horses were imported, and between Janu-
ary and May Of this year we brought over
81 $50, 900 worth. One Of the largest i'm.
porters is q man named Durham, near
| Chicago, who has made himself million
aire by bringing Percherons from France
| to America, and who now imports hun
dreds of thousands of dollars worth
| yearly. l bought my first horses from
| Durham, and then went to France myself
and imported others"
In company with the senator walked
through his barns, took q look at his COW
stable, rode over the farm and dned with
him mt the old farm house
The colony of barns would make an
ordinary farmers eyes bulge out with
wonder, The buildings alone have cost
more than $4,000. There arc acres OF
yards and BUILDINGS, and as much care
almost is taken Of the comfort of the stock
as would be taken were they SO many
babies in their swaddling clothes. The
ventilation of the horses sta bles is perfect,
and 30 arranged that draft cannot strike
the horse nor the light shina in his eyes.
There are stalls for about seventy horses.
IL
his name in printed letters, and the his
tory OF each s;eed IS kept in sort of a
horse book or equestrian record.
The senator's COW stables would dwarf
Pennsylvania bank barn If they were
placed beside ono. They constitute q
two story building, each floor Of which
has an area as large Us that Of a city lot,
forty feet front and 1870 feet deep, and
added to this there is q transert OF ninety
feet. These stables are said to be tho
finest of their kind in the country, and
the foundation Is as solid as though tho
building was intended for heavy manu-
featuring. A cellar, with brick walls
eight feet high. underlies the whole. and
there is there a steam engine OF fifteen
horse power, which does all the heavy
work OF the establishment. II raises the
hay from the wagon to the second story,
where it is carried Off on car tracks to lust
the spot where it is wanted. 1t unloads
the wagons of oats and corn carrying the
grain by means Of shoots into q reservoir
near the roof, md then lowering it again
by another shoot, it grinds it into
feed aud carries it back into nn-
other reservoir, whence, by the pull,
ing OF slide, the grist is let out
on the first floor as 1t is desired After
leaving I p Nyo CON .hiS &c MT to-.l.l